Aereo Plans to Expand Web TV Offerings through New Content Deals

By Karla Robinson
September 24, 2012

Aereo provides broadcast TV over the Web to consumers in New York City via the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Roku box. With plans to move into other cities, the company says it will also offer programming that doesn’t just come from local TV stations and will soon start streaming to PCs and laptops.
CEO Chet Kanojia explained that deals have been made with content owners to provide additional programming to Aereo users for an additional fee. But who exactly?
“There’s no way Kanojia is working with any network affiliated with any of the four major broadcasters,” reports Peter Kafka for AllThingsD. “They are suing his company for copyright violation, because it distributes their over-the-air programming without paying for it. So that rules out anything from News Corp., Disney, Comcast or CBS.”
It also seems unlikely that Aereo would want to sell all-or-nothing bundles from cable programming giants like Viacom or Discovery, the article suggests.
“More likely would be deals with programmers that don’t have full cable distribution in the U.S. I could imagine a theoretical deal with someone like Bloomberg TV, for instance, or Al Jazeera English,” writes Kafka. “Asked to provide additional clarification, Aereo PR head Virginia Lam writes: ‘We have had conversations with a variety of content providers, including some cable networks.'”

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